In one of our most recent articles, Marisa shared with us the secret to standing out in Google’s search results. I’m not going to give the secret away—you can find out for yourself —but it did lead to another question that comes up when we talk about SEO: should you spend your time and money on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or through organic search?

Here’s my take on the answer: I’ll take organic nine times out of 10. Organic search results simply mean more to your customers. Here’s why: more than 70% of people click on the organic search results, and only 30% are likely to click on the paid links. (An Introductory Guide To PPC )

Why’s that?

As one author put it, your organic SEO is the bedrock of your online presence. A successful organic SEO strategy (one that will help you outperform and improve your Google search position ) is about talking to real people. A big part of that is consistency. Continually offering focused content that actually answers your audience’s questions is the best strategy toward making sure you’re getting leads that have the potential to be customers. If you’re doing it right, that consistency will pay off in your rankings over time.

PPC advertising isn’t designed to work that way. Companies typically lean on PPC in the short term, but they set a major goal to get away from it once theyre beyond the first few years. In the short term, it can be a good strategy, but it doesn’t make sense to pay for people to visit your site in the long term.

At Nectafy, just over the past four months, we’ve watched worked to see our organic traffic grow 58.4%  as we’ve narrowed in on answering the right questions consistently.

You said you’d choose organic nine times out of 10. So, what’s the exception?

The nature of PPC advertising is immediate by design. With PPC, you’ll get a near-instant, temporary surge in leads, so PPC is valuable to you if and when you need immediacy first and foremost. Keep in mind, though, that unless you have a gigantic budget, there’s little longstanding effect—the hits stop when your money runs out.

PPC vs. organic—a look at the numbers:

Imagine you’re the CEO of a CRM company who’s interested in the keywords “Top CRM solutions” at an average bid of $14.55. Keep in mind that a “good” click-through rate for PPC ads is about 2%. If your ad gets 1000 searches, and 2% of those searchers click through at $14.55/click, you’re spending $291 for those 20 clicks.

Because you’re a scrupulous CEO, you’re going to see how the cost of PPC compares to organic search. You have content that’s positioning you at fifth for the same keyword, which gets you 6% of clicks. That means, out of the first 1000 searchers, you’re getting 60 clicks for free, and you’re continuing to bring in visitors at no cost.

With organic search, cost happens up front; it requires time and SEO expertise to create a page that ranks. but once it does, visits are free. There’s no ongoing cost per click.

In comparison:

As I mentioned previously, with PPC, your visits stop when you stop paying. PPC requires a budget not only for purchasing through Google, but also for management by an agency or employee. PPC is all about optimization, testing, and keeping a close eye on conversion rates and ROI. If you have a marketing person on staff who focuses on conversion, you might be able to make PPC work.

With organic, your focus is on creating great content. You invest in an agency or employee to create content, but you don’t have to spend any additional budget to pay for clicks. With a good content marketer, you’ll be able to make organic work for less investment that yields higher return.

A winning combination?

One important thing to keep in mind: organic and PPC are more like an odd couple than enemies. Companies can and do find success with PPC advertising when it’s used as a complement to organic SEO efforts, not as a replacement or an equal. So, if you decide to invest in PPC, you’ll want to strategically implement it in addition to the work you’re already doing: creating focused, helpful content.